Joel's New Hampshire Diary
At the Diner with Rudy
By Joel Achenbach
NASHUA, N.H. -- Rudy Giuliani (yes, he's still a candidate) just showed up at Jackie's Diner, and a handful of volunteers, sprinkled amid dozens of camera people, tried to get a chant going ("Who do we want? Roo-Dee"). To call it a feeble, lame and borderline pathetic chant would not be ungenerous. But no matter! Giuliani is only sort-of campaigning here. He's had a few events, but he's pretty much phoning it in. He's banking on the big states down the road.
"Mayor, where do you win first?" someone shouted.
"Where the voters decide that," Giuliani answered.
He used a baseball metaphor: These are only the opening innings.
In a doorway a few steps away, Giuliani adviser Ted Olson tried a different metaphor: "This is not a sprint."
It's a marathon. What matters most is what happens after New Hampshire, leading up to the voting on Feb. 5.
"How big is New York? It's pretty big," Olson said.
Further down the sidewalk stood Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster. His focus groups showed a big win by Mitt Romney in the debate last night. He said the Obama-boom will siphon some independent votes that might normally have gone to John McCain. The McCain-Romney contest is too close to call, he said, but voters who value personality will be more likely to go for McCain and those who focus on policies will be more likely to go for Romney.
The Democratic race isn't so complicated.
"What I think is that Wednesday morning a few Hillary staffers are going to be looking for employment," Luntz said. (He likes to precede a pithy comment by saying, "Here's the sound bite.") He said that in 48 hours, Hillary Clinton is going to remind voters of the tiger that got loose at the San Francisco Zoo. "And Barack Obama is going to be one of the teenagers."
Posted at 2:20 PM ET on Jan 7, 2008
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Posted by: lnardozi | January 7, 2008 9:16 PM
Yes, its a marathon.
But can you compete in a marathon that starts on Jan 3, if you start running on Feb 5?
Posted by: bsimon | January 7, 2008 2:52 PM
Ouch!
Posted by: JakeD | January 7, 2008 2:35 PM
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When you're filling your car with $3 gas and buying some $2.65 a dozen eggs, remember who is running on stopping deficit spending. The war for oil is what caused prices for anything that eats grain to skyrocket. When THOSE prices rise, the fresh fruit seller raises his prices again, now you have some nice $5 a pound grapes in the market. Laugh all you want, it's YOUR money being spent. YOU'RE the one going to pay $250 a week for groceries. Still think Ron Paul sounds like a bad idea? He's the ONLY candidate, Republican or Democrat that is running on reducing your cost of living. Maybe you have plenty money. Me, I'm not so rich.